RUSSIAN DOSSIER SERIES

This is an impressive list for a retired MI6 agent, turned opposition researcher, who had not actively worked in Russia for a quarter century. One of his sources even works within earshot of Putin. Steele identifies his sources as “trusted compatriots,” “knowledgeable sources,” “former intelligence officers,” “ministry of foreign affairs officials,” and an “ethnic Russian” in Trump’s immediate circle. Are they who they say they are? Can we trust what they are telling us? Do the sources have a hidden agenda? On all counts, Steele’s sources fail. In intelligence circles, the credibility of sources is the first question asked. Instead of chasing after the Dossier’s few verifiable facts, I used simple smell tests: Do the events described in the Dossier make any sense given what we know about how Putin and the Kremlin operate? Instead, I had to rely on common sense, made muscular by more than a half-century of following the Kremlin and, most recently, Putin’s hybrid war against Ukraine. Unlike media, the FBI, and intelligence services, I had no special sources or leakers.

RUSSIAN DOSSIER SERIES

I followed with a series of articles that challenged Steele’s Dossier. The article attracted an audience of 185,000. I entered this fray two days after BuzzFeed with my article titled, The Trump Dossier Is Fake - And Here Are The Reasons Why. If true, Steele would have uncovered the most sensational scandal in American history – an American Manchurian candidate about to assume the reins of executive power in a mere nine days. The Dossier gave never-Trumpers the tantalizing excuse that Trump’s collusion with the Kremlin caused the unlikely defeat of Hillary Clinton. On January 11, 2017, BuzzFeed, a frequently contentious media platform, published a confidential report, titled “Republican candidate Donald Trump's Activities in Russia and Compromising Relationship with the Kremlin.” Purportedly gathered by former MI-6 agent, Christopher Steele, from high-level informants from within Vladimir Putin’s (and Trump’s) inner circles, Steele claimed, in effect, that Trump, was an agent of Putin’s Kremlin. Let’s go back to the beginning and my own small role in the matter: We’ll find proof if we follow the clues that Steele has given us. It suggests, yes, there must be something to the charge that Trump colluded with an enemy power. The widespread use of the term “roadmap” is telling. Let’s review the story of the Steele Dossier and ask whether clear-thinking unbiased persons in media or government would have taken the charges in the Dossier so seriously as to use it as the roadmap to Russian government officials’ purported alliance with Trump employees and campaign aides to help his election. The only “verified” information that Horowitz found was available from public sources. He found that the Dossier was compiled from hearsay and third-hand gossip from two low-level sources and that they denied the testimony attributed to them. Inspector General Michael Horowitz drove the final stake through its heart. We now know that the Steele Dossier is bogus. They were a knowing and willing part of the Democratic and media smear of a presidential contender, and then president, that paralyzed U.S. That our most sophisticated government officials acted as if the Dossier were legitimate leads to only one conclusion. Any residual doubt would have vanished after learning that its author, Christopher Steele, was an opposition researcher paid by the Democrats to dig up dirt on Trump. A cursory examination of the Steele Dossier should have convinced the CIA or the FBI that it was fake news.

Russian dossier